Spartans Have All the Ingredients

Press conference after press conference Tom Izzo can be seen grumbling about various aspects of his team’s performances. More than just winning something

Press conference after press conference Tom Izzo can be seen grumbling about various aspects of his team’s performances. More than just winning something special, I believe Tom just wants his Spartans to live up to their potential; there is an abundance of it on this team. Injuries have been a factor, illness has taken its toll and youth certainly has contributed to the inconsistency.

 

While the Spartans continue to play close games with sub-standard competition (PSU, NU and Iowa), there is one part of their game that continues to grow. It doesn’t matter if your courtside in the Breslin Center or you are watching Izzo’s boys from your living room, this team cares about one another. More importantly, this team is having fun on the court as a result of their cohesiveness.

 

When Tom Herzog made his first career start last week against the Badgers, there was genuine love, appreciation and excitement from his teammates. There were two stories circulated after “The Zogger’s” start, the first being that Izzo forgot to play him against Purdue and the second was a reward for his hard work in practice. Maybe both of them were true. At the end of the day, it really didn’t matter. His team was beaming with pride after the seven-footer from Flint scored the first basket of the game.

 

The MSU freshmen are starting to play winning basketball. Delvon Roe carried his team on the interior Wednesday night, while Korie Lucious carried them on the perimeter. Draymond Green looks like the next blue-collar do everything player to wear a Spartan uniform. His defense and rebounding have really helped take up the slack for MSU while Raymar has been under the weather.

 

There were upperclassmen that could have pouted as the freshman played the starring roles. Instead, the chest bumps were big and the high-fives were… well, pretty high. Lucious torched Iowa with three 3-pointers on three consecutive MSU possessions. Green had the prettiest pure shot of the game with his beautiful turn-around jumper. Roe rocked the rim earlier in the game with a dunk off of a beautiful feed from Lucas.

 

The potential is evident when you look at this Spartan roster. One skilled player after another seems to come into the game for Tom Izzo. While they lack consistency offensively, they do not lack an appreciation for each other. Just like defense, rebounding and scoring are key ingredients to a championship, humility, love and respect for each other is equally important.

 

These Spartans have not proven that they can be consistent from one night to the next. While Raymar works himself back into game shape, they may continue to struggle a bit while Tom finds his rotation. This team will win a Big Ten Championship. They will get a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament if they win the rest of their games and win the conference tournament. I love this team’s potential. I like the way they are finding ways to win games. Most importantly, they look like they are having fun out there and enjoying the experience.